After her rag-doll routine on “Dancing With the Stars,” Marie Osmond may have lost her chance to claim the show’s mirrorball trophy.
The 48-year-old entertainer enjoyed strong viewer support throughout the show’s fifth season, while suffering the death of her father and fainting on stage. But talk-show hosts and fan blogs buzzed with criticism after Monday’s ballroom battle.
Comedian Mario Cantone, who served as a guest host on ABC’s “The View” Tuesday, said: “There is nothing stranger than a 45-year-old woman in a baby doll dress. ... Why would you not dance in your final dance? She’s not dancing!”
Osmond and partner Jonathan Roberts’ pantomime-inspired freestyle routine earned the night’s lowest score: 22 points. The couple entered the season finale in third place with 46 points.
After judges’ scores are combined with viewer votes, the bottom-ranked pair was to be dismissed at the top of Tuesday’s show.
Bloggers blasted Osmond’s routine.
Judge Bruno Tonioli said Monday the doll dance was “like ‘Baby Jane’ and the ‘Bride of Chucky.”’
Another PopWatch blogger, Becky, called Osmond’s performance “a drunken nightmare.”
“That’s all you can say about the freestyle dance,” she wrote. “Weird, lame. I don’t care if you are 48 and had 16 kids and did flips in the air. It was embarrassingly bad.”
One fan wrote: “If Marie wins I will NEVER watch the show again!”
But “The View” host Joy Behar liked the couple’s routine, calling it “something new.” Osmond is a “smart girl,” Behar said, because she used the dance to promote the doll line she sells on QVC.com.
Osmond repeatedly said Monday that she is “one of the top doll designers in the world.”
“I know my fan base,” she said.
Spice Girl Melanie Brown and partner Maksim Chmerkovskiy headed into the season finale in first place, with 55 out of a possible 60 points. Race-car driver Helio Castroneves and partner Julianne Hough came in a close second with 54 points.
Tuesday’s season finale was to feature a performance by Celine Dion, as well as final dances by the top two couples.
The ABC show began with a dozen dancers. Model-actress Josie Maran was the first to be eliminated. Other nixed contestants were actresses Sabrina Bryan, Jennie Garth and Jane Seymour, entrepreneur Mark Cuban, entertainer Wayne Newton, boxer Floyd Mayweather, actor Cameron Mathison and model Albert Reed.